This week we discussed the upcoming of the internet and along with it the phenomenon that has taken over our social lives, social networks. Are our lives safe from judgement of the public? As long as we are sharing online I don’t believe it is.

To begin I think I might reign it in closer to home. Parents, parental control. In class we were asked who’s parents where on Facebook and who was friends with their parents on Facebook. In our group I was the only one to raise my hand… It has never been an issue for me to be friends with my parents on Facebook, I occasionally get tagged in the odd picture with the basic message of “I love my daughters” or the most recent one “No Family is Perfect, I love my Family.”

This has never bothered me, but my younger brother, he refused to be friends with my parents for a long time! But that never stopped them from getting information on what he was posting. During his Leavingcert he finished an exam early and went for a pint in the local hotel. My Aunty wasn’t long finding out from her son and telling my Mother. I think this is a perfect example of how nothing is private. Anything that goes up, wether they are your friends or not, everyone has their informants.

In my opinion, people forget the power of the internet. I think they also forget that curiousity is natural, and some people are just plain nosey. There has been so many times that someone will mention to me, “Oh you like *insert TV Series here*!” and i’m thinking I have never talked to you about this in my entire life but it’s because they have seen me like it or talk about it on Facebook or Twitter. Nothing is private anymore, but we are aware of this and we still choose to share or should I say some of us still choose to share some intimate, personal details online.

I was researching online for figures in relation to Ireland’s use of social media. I found this really informative infographic. Something that really caught my eye was that the highest percentage of people using Facebook at 29% are the 25-34s. I had always presumed it would Teenagers. I found the demographic percentages interesting in relation to the topic of parents on facebook. 34% 13-24’s and 58% 25-54’s showing that the Facebook demographic may be moving towards an older demographic. This in turn may mean that adulescens do not want to be on the same social networking site as their parents as nothing can be kept a private. There are just some things that teenagers don’t want their parents to know.